The small, blue-collar community in eastern Connecticut, which includes the city of Willimantic, had a nationally recognized urban elementary school and Windham schools were considered to be among the best of the state's urban districts.

But since then poverty hassoared there. The number of students who don't speak English fluently has nearly doubled. Town residents have balked at education budgets and whittled them down. And alienation has worsened between town officials and the school district and between the community's urban and rural taxpayers.

Now, by many measures, Windham schools are headed in the wrong direction.

Connecticut Mastery Test scores have declined in many areas. The dropout rate is twice the state average. Only half the students are proficient in reading. And the school district has the largest academic achievement gap — the persistent disparity in academic performance between poor students and their more affluent classmates — in the state.

Teachers grumble that many students are disrespectful and roam the hallways during class. Not that many parents are involved with their children's schools. The number of special education students is unusually high.

The school system's problems became so severe last summer that then-state Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan stepped in and threatened to replace the school board, a move that has sparked resentment in this hilly town of 23,000.

Windham's problems came to a head in August when McQuillan saw the latest Connecticut Mastery Test scores, which showed that the town's 3,361 students lag far behind statewide averages. Among the trouble spots: Fifth-graders' scores had dropped, and eighth-graders' reading and writing scores had plunged. From fourth to fifth grade, academic growth in reading and math was slowing considerably and, in some cases, regressing.

McQuillan visited the Windham school board to discuss the "dire condition of education in Windham" and the need for strong, proven leadership. The superintendent position was vacant and McQuillan wanted the board to hire one of his associate commissioners, Marion Martinez.

But the board said the community felt more comfortable with Windham's assistant superintendent, Ana V. Ortiz, an experienced administrator who was serving as interim superintendent.

In September, McQuillan ordered a comprehensive audit of the school system and told the school board to take the Lighthouse Training Program, a leadership program for school boards that focuses in depth on student achievement.

He also threatened to replace the school board if the situation didn't improve by April. A school reform law enacted last May allows the state education commissioner to replace school board members.

This did not sit well in Windham.

"Who the hell is he to tell us what to do?" said Kenneth Folan, chairman of Windham's school board, recalling the standoff.

"Why us?" Ortiz recalled thinking. "Why is he picking on little Windham all of a sudden?"

The school board ignored McQuillan's recommended choice for superintendent and voted in December to make Ortiz the permanent superintendent. McQuillan, meanwhile, resigned for unrelated reasons, and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has not yet named a permanent replacement.

In the meantime, the state Department of Education recently conducted seven audits of the Windham district — which has four elementary schools, including blue-ribbon winner Windham Center School; a middle school and a high school — covering everything from student achievement and governance to finances. State education consultants have begun to share the findings with school administrators, the school board and teachers. Next, the state consultants plan to work closely with the board and administrators to develop a comprehensive set of recommendations that they hope the community will embrace.

This is not the first time the state has intervened in Windham. In 2008, the state forged a partnership with the school district to raise student achievement. The state also sent coaches to work with principals in each of Windham's schools.

McQuillansaid in a phone interview after the standoff that he felt an increasing urgency to pull Windham out of its tailspin after seeing the test results and the widening academic gaps. Despite working on a district improvement plan, Windham was still going in the wrong direction, he said,and demoralized staff and disenfranchised families seemed to be giving up hope.

Hispanic Population Spikes

A demographic shift in Windham in the past decade has deeply affected the town's schools. More than 60 percent of the student body now is Hispanic — up from 50 percent 10 years ago, and from the mid-20 percent range about 15 years ago.The urban core of Puerto Rican residents has seen a major influx of Mexican immigrants in recent years. A third of Windham students now come from homes where English is not the primary language.

The state audits reveal that Windham's schools have been slow to adapt to the population change.

"What seems to come out of reports is that the instructional practices and strategies in schools haven't responded quickly enough to needs of those kids," said Lol Fearon, a state Department of Education bureau chief who has been working on the audits and assisting Windham.

"Teachers try to meet the needs, but they just don't have the resources and the background training," he said. "Also, it's almost impossible to find teachers for English language learners in the state."

The audits also found a serious paucity of language-based services for English language learners, particularly as they transitioned into mainstream classrooms or moved into middle school or high school.

In addition, only about 13 percent of the teachers and administrators are Latino. "With that kind of shift in population, you would want to reflect that in the adults available to the kids," Fearon said.

Despite the population shift, most decision-making power in town remains in the hands of white residents. The state's audits found the Hispanic population has little or no involvement in local politics and government.

"There is definitely a feeling of disenfranchisement," Fearon said.

Poverty And Budget Cuts

Poverty, not surprisingly, contributes to Windham's woes. In one barometer of poverty, 74 percent of students qualified for a free or reduced-price school lunch last year, a rate that shot up from 57 percent five years earlier.

"Everything that happens here is a struggle because there's never any money," said Daniel Chace, a member of the high school's Parent Advisory Committee. "It's always been a struggle here. We're not Fairfield County."

"There's no doubt that economic background is a factor in academic achievement," Fearon said. "But it's not something the school district can control.

Town council President N. Joseph Underwood said the school system has already made many budget cuts, including middle school sports, and he is frustrated that the state doesn't send more education funds to Windham.

"Give us more money so we can put it into education," Underwood said. "Maybe we can buy more books, buy more computers, put more bilingual individuals in our school system."

Besides struggling with poverty, the district has an unusually high percentage of special education students, with 18.6 percent of students classified as having special needs, compared to the state average of 11.6 percent. State education officials believe that figure may be inflated because some students who don't speak English as a first language may have been misdiagnosed.

Caring Teachers

Despite the school district's challenges, observers say Windham schools have many strong teachers, and most are dedicated and genuinely care about their students.

"Windham does have caring teachers," Fearon said. "That's a great start. But do they feel competent that they can reach these kids and meet the needs they have in front of them? That's where we hope to make a difference."

The school system also has made some headway in narrowing the achievement gap, according to recent Connecticut Mastery Test results, though the gains were smaller than those of similar school systems and the statewide average, the audits found.

Teachers complain that somestudents at the middle school and high school are disrespectful and unruly. During a recent visit to both schools, some students were wandering in the hallways during class and had be told by their principal to return to class. A couple of students yelled and cursed loudly as they passed in the hallway.

Teachers also say students stroll into class late or simply disappear from school for weeks at a time. During class, students often text or talk on their phones and sometimes swear at teachers.

"They are disrespectful beyond belief," said one teacher, who asked not to be identified. "It's not the way I was brought up. They'll just turn away and say 'F-U.' "

Sometimes it gets physical. Two weeks ago a high school student whom Principal Steve Merlino was escorting to an in-school suspension knocked him to the ground.

"He was agitated," Merlino said. "I was pushed to the ground, but I consider that really more a part of my balance."

Four years ago, the town's alternative school closed, which meant thosestudents entered the high school. Also, the high school lost an assistant principal position.

The state's audits also found limited parental involvement in the schools.

Many Hispanic parents interviewed by the state for its audit said they are restricted by job demands and can't leave small children at home to attend school events. Some also cited the language barrier and said they feel disconnected to the school system. Fearon said part of the reason could also be that some of the Mexican immigrants may be undocumented and trying to keep a low profile.

Chace, of the parents' committee, said he is frustrated that so few parents attend school plays and other events.

"You'll see kids who are not in school for weeks," Chace said. "That's a problem. I think the problem is parents have to be involved."

Another parent, Vicente Sanchez, said usually only a handful of people show up for PTO meetings.

Urban-Rural Frictions

The problems are further compounded by a deep divide between the city of Willimantic, where most of the Latino population lives, and the more rural town of Windham, where residents are more predominately white.

"It's the story of the two Connecticuts," Ortiz said. "Willimantic tends to fall into the same situation: the Hispanic vs. white population."

Until 1983 Windham and Willimantic were separate communities, and each still retains its own mill rate. Layered on top of this is friction and a lack of communication between town officials and the school board, the audits found.

"Without significant reform on [the communication] issue, the combination of insufficient public support, declining resources, and lack of cohesive leadership will inevitably result in the continuing decline of the school district," one of the audits concluded.

Last year, it took Windham five referendums to pass the school budget. Taxpayers kept rejecting the budget until the school board finally cut $1.1 million from it, coming in with a 1.87 percent increase over the previous year. Part of the resistance came from Windham voters who opposed plans for a new magnet school, Folan said.

"The community needs to be energized and engaged to support the schools," an audit concluded. "The overarching problems of school performance, community capacity and the will to create the conditions for improvement are of extreme urgency."

This year, Ortiz is trying more of a community-based approach to the education budget, by sharing and discussing it at a series of meetings.

The audits also concluded that the school board has had a history of micro-managing the superintendent and other administrators, which has undermined efforts to move forward with big-picture goals.

"They have not given responsibility to the superintendent to develop plans to meet the needs of the kids," Fearon said. At the same time, he added, school board members feel that the community doesn't support their needs, a problem compounded by the city's poverty.

Looking Forward

The state Department of Education is now boiling down the findings of the seven audits into a more managable overview. From there, state officials plan to share the findings with the school board and teachers and trim down the 60 recommendations in the audits to a focused action plan.

In the meantime, there is a renewed energy and will to improve Windham's schools, they said.

"The school board is really attentive. They really want to change the schools," said Robert Rader, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, which is running the school board training program. "It's sort of a paradigm shift, you might call it."

As for the former education commissioner's threat to replace the school board in April, it is still on the table, but the state seems unlikely to follow through because the school board training is helping.

"The threat is always present, but it's less likely now," said state Department of Education spokesman Tom Murphy. "Things have improved."

Ortiz said she understands the sense of urgency to improve the school system but wants to make sure the change is driven by Windham itself.

"We have got to move forward and we've got to do that collaboratively because no one is going to take us over," she said.

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